Croatian EU membership held up by corruption, says former minister

A former Croatian justice minister has said that the country´s hopes of joining the EU are being held up by its "half-hearted" attempts to root out corruption.

Speaking in parliament on Wednesday, Vesna Skare Ozbolt said that when it comes to tackling the issue of corruption the current Croatian government was "good at PR and presentation" but "poor on implementation".

Ozbolt, justice minister for three years from 2003, identified judicial reform, as well as the economy, as the "number one" challenge facing Croatia before it can be considered suitable for EU membership.

"During my tenure we tried to make things more transparent and introduced several anti-corruption measures," she told theparliament.com.

"I personally made this my number one priority but it appears to now be well down the list of priorities, if not at the bottom, for the current government.

"Basically, the administration does not seem to be taking the issue seriously. Any efforts which are being  made are stuck and I am afraid this is going to hold up Croatia joining the EU."

Ozbolt, who now runs a law firm and is currently president of the Democratic Centre Party in Croatia, was speaking in the margins of the first day of a two-day "international leaders´ conference in parliament.

The conference, which has attracted some high-profile speakers, will focus on international relations, energy and justice.

Another speaker was Slovakia's former deputy prime minister and finance minister, Ivan Miklos, who addressed efforts by his country to reform its tax regime.

This, he said, had resulted in basic tax rates being reduced to 19 per cent from as high as 38 per cent.

He said that a country, once seen as a "black hole" of Europe, had successfully introduced "deep structured" tax reforms.

He admitted that the issue of Slovakia's membership of the eurozone was seen by his countrymen as being risky but, nevertheless, said he fully supported the move.

"Some, particularly the uneducated and elderly, see it as a threat and are afraid of us joining the eurozone, but I see it as an opportunity," he told theparliament.com.

• Previous article
• Next article